Behind the scenes #10 – What happend this summer and autumn?

Have you noticed that blogposts have become rather random ’round here? I used to post every Monday, but these days the Monday surprise is not the topic of the latest article but whether there is a new article at all.

Even though I am trying with all my might to keep up with weekly posts, apparently I do not always manage it. If, despite all this, you are still here, reading, I will now tell you what I’ve been up to lately, and explain what other things drove blog writing from the top of my priority list.

The past few months have definitely been a period for “first times”, I have tried many things I had never done before. The first and most important one of these is

DM’s 2019 Lifebook

I spent most of July hunch-backed over my desk. Compared to sunbathing in the Mediterranean this doesn’t sound like an ideal July, but personally I was completely satisfied with the arrangements (I don’t much like sunbathing anyway): I could finally paint what I love most.

Drogerie Markt, known as DM in Europe, is a German-based drugstore, that comes out with a planner every year called Lifebook, which I had the pleasure to work on this year. After many discussions and negotiations I could finally start painting the floral-themed planner in July, which has been one of my first major illustrative jobs up till now. I had been fully prepared that working with a multi-national company may not be smooth, but to my great surprise everything went just fine.

Teaching workshops

Creating is not the privilege of great talents, it is for everyone. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ll know that this is one my main principles in life, which I am also trying to pass on to others – in writing, on the blog, but from now on, also in practice. I taught my first *real* workshop at the beginning of November in Budapest, in the beautiful Workshop Studio. The pieces have become awsome, you guys rock. However, the person I am most proud of is Zsófi, who attended my demo workshop a couple of weeks previously, and who has been painting ever since, sharing her work over Instagram. Please give her some love, her works are so cute.

Currently I teach only in Hungarian in Budapest, but you are welcome to invite me to teach in English as well.

Attending a wedding trade show

In the first week of November we worked tirelessly on preparing for the great autumn wedding trade show in Budapest, where I was persuaded to go, despite my better judgement. Custom portraits and floral wreaths are favourites when it comes to wedding invitations, but the event was also important to me because I am going to be a bride next year. However, my expectations were fully confirmed: these types of events are not for me. Being an introvert means that direct marketing is not my cup of tea. Everything went alright, but the constant music, talking and forced cheerfulness exhausted me a lot. On the whole I am glad I tried this, even if I may not do it again soon.

Back to school

The new school term started at the beginning of October at art school, so I spend most of my Thursdays there. After last year’s graphic design I am now studying illustration – with different teachers, at a different location, and with different methods, though at the same school. Right now I have mixed feelings about the course but I don’t want to form an opinion too early so I’ll write about this in another blogpost. However, we have already worked with a lot of new techniques, so the new medium series might be back soon.

Personal projects

The biggest personal project in September was creating new downloadable goodies for next year, which turned out to be the veggie calendar. I know your question: why veggies? Well, one of the best advice I got as an illustrator was ‘do the work you want to be comissioned for’. Fruit and vegetable have always been a source of fascination to me, so I stopped resisting the temptation and painted cabbages and strawberries for 2019. The calendar is now available in a digital download format on Etsy. It is worth taking a look as I am not sure I’ll be sending out printable formats of this calendar next year.

My main focus in October was giving a new look to the website. I wrote more about the why-s and how-s in this blogpost.

Some travelling

As they say, relaxing is no luxury, it is a basic need – and nothing relaxes me better than a bit of travelling. For us, no autumn can pass without a bit of mountain climbing, and of course we never forget about grape harvest and new wines either.

For the time being it does not look like as if December would be a less busy month, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to weekly blogging, but I’ll try my best to greet you with a new blogpost every Monday. :)